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Friday, 3 March 2017

The Discovery of Franz Josef Land 1873

Franz Josef in 1910 -an old man for whom so many young ones died

The Emperor
Franz Josef (1830 - 1916) of the Austro-Hungarian Empire reigned for an amazing
68 years and is probably best remembered today for his complicity in starting World
War 1. Conscientious, unimaginative, hardworking, pig-headed, but essentially
stupid, his tenure was to be marked by military defeat, political decline and
personal tragedy. His wife was murdered, his son died in a suicide pact, his brother
– the so-called Emperor of Mexico – was shot by a firing squad and his nephew’s
assassination triggered disaster in 1914. His domains lay in Central and Southern
Europe and it is therefore all the more surprising that the archipelago named
after him – Franz Josef Land – should
be located in the Arctic Ocean and be today a Russian possession of
considerable strategic value.

In an earlier
blog (30 September 2016 – accessible through sidebar on right) I described
Austro-Hungary’s Novara scientific
expedition of 1857-59. In this period, such expeditions were matters of
international prestige comparable to space exploration in our own day and Austro-Hungary,
which had only acquired a navy in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, was
keen not to be left out. The resulting Novara
expedition was to be a triumph that included oceanographic and geomagnetic
surveys as well as onshore botany and geology of lands visited and it provided
material for what would become Vienna’s Naturhistorisches Museum in such volume
that some of it is still under examination today.

The Novara model in Vienna'sNaturhistorisches Museum

My wife and I spent two days in
the museum last year and we could have spent an entire week there with no less
pleasure and were impressed by two splendid models of ships which had
participated in important scientific expeditions. The first was the previously
mentioned Novara, but the second was
of the later Tegetthoff, which was
responsible for the discovery of Franz Josef Land.

By the 1870s the
Arctic had become a major focus of exploration activity (see blog of 27.12.16). It was not surprising therefore that when a
major Austro-Hungarian scientific and exploration effort be launched in the early
1870s the focus was to be on the Arctic Ocean and investigation of a possible
route to the North Pole. Financed by two noblemen, the exploration was to concentrate
on the area north-west of Novaya Zemlya. It was under command of a Captain Karl
Weyprecht, who had himself served under the famous Admiral Tegetthoff, for whom
the vessel was named. The crew was small – 24 in number, including scientific staff.

The Tegetthoff model in Vienna'sNaturhistorisches Museum

The Tegetthoff departed from Tromsø, in
Norway, in July 1872. A month later she found herself locked in pack ice north
of Novaya Zemlya. The phenomenon of ice-drift in the Arctic ocean was not yet
known much less understood, and the ship was in the same nightmare situation as
the American Jeanette expedition of 1878-81
(see blog of 27.12.16).

Forecastle details

Deck Details

Tegetthoff fast in the ice

Though there was
continued expectation that the ice would ultimately release its hold and give
access to open water, the Tegetthoff was
now drifting into the unknown. The ship was to remain locked during the winter
of 1872-73, through the summer that followed, and through another winter,
1873-74. Hope, discipline and morale remained high however and when an obvious
land mass was sighted a sledge expedition was despatched, under one of the
expedition leaders, Julius von Payer, to investigate. The land discovered proved to be an archipelago,
now known to consist of 191 islands, and one of the most barren places on
earth, and then wholly uninhabited. It was duly named after Emperor Franz
Josef.

Location of Franz Josef Land - with thanks to Google Earth

It seems to have
emerged later that this may not however have bene the first sighting the archipelago,
since a Norwegian sealing vessel may have done so in 1865. Anxious however to
keep secret what could be a fertile area for sealing and whaling, and to ensure
that other vessels would not come to exploit it, no announcement was made by the
captain responsible. The Tegetthoff Expedition’s
objective was however less mercenary and the credit for the discovery is therefore
due to it. One cannot be impressed by the
cool-efficiency with which sledging parties were sent out throughout 1873, even
though the prospects for release of the ship from the ice became more grim by the
day. On one of these sledge journeys von Payer reached 81° 50′ North, the highest
latitude achieved up to that time.

The Franz Josef archipelago - with thanks to Google Earth

When spring
arrived in May 1874 the expectation that the ice might free the ship was proved
vain. The decision was accordingly taken to abandon the Tegetthoff and to strike out for the open sea, dragging the ship’s
boats. The journey involved must have been a nightmare and it lasted almost
three months, but on 14 August 1874 open water was reached. The boats carried the
crew to Novaya Zemlya, from where a
Russian fishing boat carried them to Northern Norway. Weyprecht, von Payer and their
men were accorded a well-deserved hero’s welcome at each stage of their
returned to Austria through Norway, Sweden and Germany. Their entry to Vienna
was greeted by a crowd numbered at over a hundred thousand. For all that the Tegettoff herself had been lost, her
scientific contribution had been enormous.

The empire
that Franz Josef had ruled lasted only two years after his death and is now a
distant memory. It is ironic therefore that in the wastes of the Arctic, where
he himself never set foot, his name should be preserved.

r

Britannia’s Reach

It’s 1880. On a broad river deep in the heart of South America, a flotilla of paddle steamers thrashes slowly upstream. Laden with troops, horses and artillery, intent on conquest and revenge.

Ahead lies a commercial empire that was wrested from a British consortium in a bloody revolution. Now the investors are determined to recoup their losses and are funding a vicious war to do so.

Nicholas Dawlish, an ambitious British naval officer, is playing a leading role in the expedition. But as brutal land and river battles mark its progress upriver, and as both sides inflict and endure ever greater suffering, stalemate threatens.

And Dawlish finds himself forced to make a terrible ethical choice if he is to return to Britain with some shreds of integrity remaining…

opening

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About Me

My "Dawlish Chronicles" are set in the late 19th Century and reflect my deep interest in the politics, attitudes and technology of the period. The fifth novel in the series, “Britannia’s Amazon” is now available in both paperback and Kindle formats. It follows the four earlier Dawlish Chronicles, "Britannia's Wolf", "Britannia's Reach”, "Britannia's Shark" and "Britannia's Spartan". Click on the book covers below to learn more or to purchase.
I’ve had an adventurous career in the international energy industry and am proud of having worked in every continent except Antarctica. History is a driving passion in my life and I have travelled widely to visit sites of historical significance, many insights gained in this way being reflected in my writing. I welcome contact on Facebook and via this Blog. My website is www.dawlishchronicles.com and its “Conflict” section has a large number of articles on topics from the mid-18th Century to the early 20th Century.